1. Login

Login using the Log in item in the blog’s sidebar entering your username and password (both are case sensitive). Click the Remember Me item to stayed logged in (which also makes commenting on posts easier).

If you are already logged in, you will see a dark menu bar across the top of all the blog pages. Either click the Sterling Adventures item to go to the administration area, or use the various direct links once you have become familiar with the administration menu bar.
Once in the administration area you’ll notice it has a different look from the main site – a standard WordPress look – but you’ll soon get used to it.
From here you can write your post. You can also edit posts you have written perviously.

You can get back to the main site at any point by clicking Sterling Adventures at the top left of any administration page.

2. Write Your Post

Click Add New or click Post under the + New menu at the top of the page, then start off by entering the title and text of your post.

In the HTML editor have a play with the quick-tag buttons to style your post. For example you can create numbered lists (ol), bullets (ul), make text bold or italicised, create links etc. Just play about, then select Save Draft before previewing the page with Preview.

In the Visual editor the buttons and editor work much like a simple word processor.

3. Categories

Check the Categories that apply to your post. Categories are supposed to classify the sports, activities, etc. so there will typically be only one or possibly a few associated with each post. However, to help readers search the blog each post can be tagged with multiple Tags. Therefore, optionally, set as many tags that you may want people to find your posts by, for example locations, animals, memorable events, people, foods, etc.

4. Upload Media (Pictures, Video, etc.)

This is a crucial step if you want to illustrate your posting. Click the Add media button and drag the pictures you want to upload from your computer directly to the area highlighted. Or click the Select Files button to find the files you want to upload.

When the media has uploaded you may enter a Title, Caption, and Description – although these are not required they are useful.

Hints:

Try to upload scaled images (i.e. not the full 2Mb+ files straight from your camera) if you can, it’ll be much quicker. But don’t worry if you can’t, scaled and thumbnail versions that are the right size for the blog’s pages are automatically created for you.

Videos should always be compressed before uploading. Aim for a few Mb to allow people to view your videos easily with common broadband speeds. Or use YouTube embedding described below.

You may upload more than one file at a time.

5. Insert Media into Your Post

Select the media you want to insert and you’ll see some choices of how the media can be used.

Make the these choices for thumbnail images:

Choose an option beneath the Link URL field. Choose None in most cases, this gives no link. For thumbnails sometimes the Attachment Post URL option is worthwhile as this will allow readers to see the image full size when they click on the thumbnail.

Choose Thumbnail for the Size.

Make these choices for pictures used in the main post text:

Choose None beneath the Link URL field.

Choose your Alignment, probably Center.

Choose a Size – aim for a width of approximately 600 pixels. If your upload wasn’t already scaled the Medium size will be the right choice.

Finally click Insert into Post to insert the media into the post text. Notice that it will insert where your cursor is positioned in the text.

6. Set the Excerpt Text

The first few sentences of the main text will automatically be used as the Excerpt. However, this can be a little too long for a good teaser. So, optionally, there are two ways to make it shorter…

Use the more button to set the point within the body text where the Excerpt should end. Just click this button with your cursor at the point in the body text where you want the Excerpt to stop.

Hand-craft a teaser in the Excerpt box.

Set a one image as the featured image when uploading images to automatically set the thumbnail for this post. When you get back to the Add New Post page you’ll notice the Featured Image box also shows that thumbnail.